A terrified 11-year-old girl woke up to find a burglar in her bedroom.

The raider ordered Lauren Reid to be quiet and then locked himself and the child in an upstairs flat above the Albion Inn, Fishersgate.

The distraught girl did as she was told during the burglary on Monday night, which police believe may have saved her from harm.

Her parents, pub owners Darren and Sue Reid, were downstairs working, oblivious to their daughter's ordeal, while more than £5,000 was being taken from their office.

Mr Reid, 40, who has owned the pub in Fishergate Terrace for the past three years, said: "This guy broke into my residence.

"My daughter was woken by him standing by her bed.

He didn't hurt her thank God but he locked her upstairs. It happened between 10.30pm and 11.15pm. I was downstairs playing poker as we run a special poker night and my wife was working in the bar.

Our eldest daughter was also in the bar.

"We do a buffet for the poker night and as I was carrying the trays back upstairs I noticed the internal door between the flat and the bar was locked.

"I started to panic and started banging on the door.

"My wife came up asking what all the commotion was.

"It looks like he told her to stay in her room, so how long do you stay there. I was screaming to let me in as I could hear she was crying.

"I was about to kick the door in when she opened it.

"She was in pieces. You could see she had been crying, all she could say was, Man in the window. Man in the window'."

The burglar had managed to climb scaffold outside the pub, which is being refurbished, and climb through an open bedroom window.

From there it is believed he went through all of the bedrooms looking for valuables and woke a frightened Lauren.

Mr Reid added: "He realised my youngest daughter was in bed and that's when he asked her where the main door was to the pub and then he locked that from the inside.

"He bolted her in so she wouldn't have been able to open the door in time.

"Thank God she did exactly as she said.

"But I feel I've let my daughter down."

Anybody with any information should contact Sussex Police on 0845 6070999 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.